The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.203

v1.c24.203

There is likewise another passage in Herodotus (IV, 44) which affords further proof, both of the Persian annexation or control of the valley of the Indus from its upper course to the sea, including therefore the Punjab and Sind, as well as of the possibility at that time of navigating by sea from the Indus to Persia. Sometime about 517 B.C., Darius despatched a naval expedition under Scylax, a native of Caryanda in Caria, to explore the Indus. The squadron embarked at a place in the Gandhāra country, somewhere near the upper course of the Indus, the name of the city being Kaspatyros (Hdt. IV, 44, cf. III, 102) or, more accurately, Kaspapyros (Hecataeus, *Fragm.* 179). The exact location of this place is still a matter of discussion, but the town may have been situated near the lower end of the Cophen (now Kābul) River before it joins the Indus¹. The fleet, it is recorded, succeeded in making its way to the Indian Ocean and ultimately reached Egypt, two and one-half years from the time when the voyage began. From the statement of Herodotus (IV, 44) it would appear that this achievement was accomplished prior to the Indian conquest, for he says that ‘after (μετά) they had sailed around, Darius conquered the Indians and made use of this sea’ [i.e. the Indian Ocean]; but it seems much more likely that Darius must previously have won by force of arms a firm hold over the territory traversed from the headwaters of the Indus to the ocean, in order to have been able to carry out such an expedition². This conclusion appears still more convincing when we consider the difficulties which Alexander encountered in his similar undertaking of voyaging down the Indus to the sea, two centuries later, even after having first subdued most of the tribes of the Upper Punjab before starting on the voyage¹.